If Satisfied, Do Tell Others...

There is a relationship between freedom of choice and satisfaction. In fact, the question of how much satisfaction really arises only where there is adequate or ample choice available and where the exercising of one's choice holds a meaning or significance.

If a man has known nothing else than just one or a couple of fruits, or singers, or shampoos or whatever, at best he can say which he deems to be better of the two. Or which one he likes more.

It is when he can select from more than half a dozen options, that he is able to declare which one did the most for him. The act of picking the option after due consideration itself is a gratifying act.

It is part of the process of satisfaction and the culture of satisfaction that choice is required and celebrated, the differences between the choices are measured and highlighted, the choice rationalised to oneself, and so on.

Such a culture doesn't gloss over your dissatisfactions, it attaches importance to the level of your satisfaction, and does care more than two hoots about your needs as well as your wants.

It's about the importance attached to calibration, configuration, and customising the settings for your life. You can decide how much of what you would like. You would choose to hear recommendations that you can ignore, instead of impositions you can't. And the responsibility for your choices ( and the wisdom or unwisdom about them!) would too be yours alone.

So the art of satisfaction has much to do with learning an accountability to one's own self. Epicurus ( circa 300 B.C.) was of the point of view that all one's actions should aim to attain pleasure (tranquillity) which is achievable by limiting one's desires, and by ceasing to fear the gods or death.

Let me quote from the Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy: (Epicurus) He distinguishes between two different types of pleasure: 'moving' pleasures and 'static' pleasures. 'Moving' pleasures occur when one is in the process of satisfying a desire, e.g., eating a hamburger when one is hungry. These pleasures involve an active titillation of the senses, and these feelings are what most people call 'pleasure.' However, Epicurus says that after one's desires have been satisfied, (e.g., when one is full after eating), the state of satiety, of no longer being in need or want, is itself pleasurable.

Epicurus calls this a 'static' pleasure, and says that these static pleasures are the best pleasures.

Because of this, Epicurus denies that there is any intermediate state between pleasure and pain. When one has unfulfilled desires, this is painful, and when one no longer has unfulfilled desires, this steady state is the most pleasurable of all, not merely some intermediate state between pleasure and pain.

Epicurus also distinguishes between physical and mental pleasures and pains. Physical pleasures and pains concern only the present, whereas mental pleasures and pains also encompass the past (fond memories of past pleasure or regret over past pain or mistakes) and the future (confidence or fear about what will occur). The greatest destroyer of happiness, thinks Epicurus, is anxiety about the future... if one can banish fear about the future, and face the future with confidence that one's desires will be satisfied, then one will attain tranquility (ataraxia), the most exalted state.

Clearly, the man was an early champ in this field. He's come to be associated with fine taste and gourmet dining etc., also with refined discourse. Many of the very things that in fact produce high levels of satisfaction among the healthily inclined. His suggestion is that we just try and keep those anxieties and regrets from taking over. Or, like another imbiber said (more or less): Fill the cup that clears, Today of yesterday's regrets and tomorrow's fears.

A worthy toast to the seers of satisfaction.

(W)inner Satisfaction

To be satisfied with oneself is a rarer occurrence. I mean it seems to happen less often than, say, our being satisfied with some thing. Or being satisfied about some thing.

But being satisfied with oneself is also a deeper kind of satisfaction – when you set yourself an expectation from your self and then actually meet it.

When I finally manage to write a page which I had committed to myself that I would write before passing into the Land of Nod for the day, I avert a sense of lack that would have been there if I had failed to write that page. And when I actually write that page before, by, or about the time I was hoping to, I experience a certain level of fulfillment – a satisfaction.

Now there is another level of satisfaction that can stem from it. If I had set a certain kind of expectation or standard for my writing - with regard to idea-content or lucidity of writing or literary flourish or whatever, and I find my passages coming close to my expectation – I experience an even deeper sense of fulfillment. A satisfaction that seems to be better described as a sense of accomplishment.

So in the first case, the happiness was in having managed to attend to and complete an undertaken task. In the latter, the happiness is with the quality of the output.

Reminds me of words from a song by Keb Mo', a singer I rather like : And the action speaks louder than the words.

It's as if you placed a bet on yourself and won. You rapidly judged the odds of being able to swing something, went for it with some gusto, and actually succeeded. So there's you the performer and there's you the punter who placed a bet that prodded the performer in you to sprint and hit the tape.

The punter's thrills are more when there is greater uncertainty about the outcome. He has to raise the bar, increase the level of challenge – and mould the performer into a Sergei Bubka. The greater the percentage of my total potential that has thus been actually put to test, the more I feel satisfaction of the kind I get when manipulating the straw to really finish the drink inside a tetrapak.

Okay, this is how far we will go in this post. It's the finish line. Another lap run on the track of satisfaction. Should do it again soon...

Do feel free to mention here, things/people/ideas that really get your vote ( not your goat, please! ).

Satisfaction

There’s a word, a notion, a feeling, a goal that has a place in your life as it has in mine. And in many other lives. Expect to discover it on this page, and to understand its importance better because of my drawing your attention to it.

There is a reason why I am suggesting to you at the outset that a) you should have an expectation from this page, b) what kind/manner of expectation to have regarding it. Also, this very reason for a) and b) will also get revealed.

“Satisfaction”. Now that’s not a word I used to pay much attention to.

Peace, dignity, conscience, liberal… yes, these are words that have seemed very important. I have thought about those, off and on. I also seem to have spent more time mulling over what we mean by rock and roll, equality, and illusion. But this song by Simon and Garfunkel with a very unlikely title, “Got to keep the Customer satisfied” drew my curiosity. It sounds akin in spirit to a Bob Dylan song ( yes, I know that S & G’s “A Simple Desultory Philippic” is a musical snub to Bob ) called “You Gotta Serve Somebody”.

Towards what good and in whose benefit is an action undertaken ? Somewhere all of this holds the key to the question “Why?” Why do something or anything? Will the result please someone I want to please and/or will it please me?

And if I want to do something in order to please someone, how do I believe that doing this will lead up to something that will in turn please me? How can we as individuals and organizations work out “satisfaction structures” or “satisfaction models” which will clarify the parties who must get satisfied, and their levels of satisfaction? Sure, by now, everyone knows about SLAs (Service Level Agreement) wherein we exactly specify our expectations to the provider of a service.

But if cribbing, moping, lamentation, tirades, rants and complaints have become more frequently heard and welcomed these days – whether about the weather, city life, airline food, the elderly, school authorities or whatever, it’s also led us to understand satisfaction even less. Thus placing it beyond hope.

Am I here dissatisfied with the extent to which everyone understands or even thinks about satisfaction? Am I now satisfied that I have decided to focus on bringing about some general good by examining the concept of satisfaction closely? Yes, and Yes. ( It also gives me satisfaction to be able to use the affirmative Yes now and then!)

To have a clear sense of satisfaction/dissatisfaction, I need to detail out what I wish from something – that something being a restaurant, a relationship or a visit to the family doctor. Now most of us think about evaluations only post-facto. That’s to say I had no idea what I expected from a restaurant, but somehow I am able to say afterwards how much I liked it and also explain why it was better or worse than an earlier experience.

Now this is much like performing an experiment without a hypothesis. After you’ve proceeded thus, you describe the experiment in detail. And while doing this, you might perhaps uncover a hypothesis to it!! If you think ( like I used to) that satisfaction is something that might happen subsequent to an action… I believe you will discover that it’s more likely to happen if you had formed a definite guess about what to expect from the action (initiating a relationship, visiting a doctor, trying out a restaurant).

For now, I am satisfied with what I have managed to say on the subject. I would like that you should hold the expectation of more. And it will be satisfying to me to fulfill your expectation.

Do tell me here if the expectation I suggested that you should have at the beginning of this post has been met entirely, partially, or not at all…. has it gone a step towards more satisfaction for you?

Cy Z fus on Skis